Backstep and Smile
by ShadowSong StarGlaive The Wolf
Summary: Livejournal 1sentence set. 50 sentences focusing on Gummy, snare leader, and Kye, weapon in the guard, and their story involving cancer, crazy bus rides, the past, and the joys of  marching band.


**A/N** Hi! Originals are fun to do, so I decided to do one. I have 2 characters from the marching band/high school I made up- Kye Sytans and Gummy Kyrciski. A quick background, she's in guard, he's in the drumline as a snare, and in case you're not in marching band, a cliché is that the guard and drumline don't get along. (In our band, we pretty much ignore each other, with some exceptions.)

I jump around…. A lot. So they may have just met, in HS, she may be dead, he may be dead, etc, just… flow with it. Hehe.

So yay! 

#01 - Motion

The jazz back marching was fairly easy for Kye, but now that Gummy was right in front of the guard for that set, he quickly discovered that crashing into guard girls with long metal poles and rifles was a bad idea- even if they laughed it off and helped him up.

#02 - Cool

"SHADE!" bellowed Gummy, diving in the darkness cast by the evergreen tree by the side of the near-burning practice field, and hardly noticed when a light, dreamy voice said, "Excuse me, but I think you're sitting on my head."

#03 - Young

Scott, the drumline instructor, stretched his back and moaned about how bad his arthritis was, and then said a girl and a boy racing back and forth across the field, finally collapsing at the end, laughing, and he muttered, "God, I'd hate to be that young again."

#04 - Last

"RUN, Kyrciski!" bellowed Mr. Simms, and he awkwardly stumbled to his spot, trying to hook on his snare drum, cursing himself for losing track of time by staring at Kye working her sabre with such beauty and ease.

#05 - Wrong

"I can't believe I did that!" moaned Gummy, smacking himself on the head with his drumstick, relieving the memory, when Kye came up to him and said, "You know, that'll hurt the drumstick."

#06 - Gentle

Instead of kind words, Scott dealt criticism, tough feedback, and caustic remarks- but when he looked at Kye with an approving eye when Gummy let it slip that he was interested in her, Gummy felt that perhaps it was a sign.

#07 - One

There is only one chance at a competition, one try, one show to prove that you are the best- and it was only after finding out the Kye's girlfriends were talking about him behind his back that Gummy realized that it was the same thing is girls and first impressions.

#08 - Thousand

It was after the thousandth try that Gummy gave up on trying to call her and just walked over to her house that he realized that things don't go according to plan- he found her talking to Chester instead (_argh!_).

#09 - King

As the band watching the homecoming court pass on the track during halftime, Kye was attempting to teach Gummy to spin rifle, and with surprisingly only minor injuries.

#10 - Learn

On the other hand, Kye caught on quickly to snare drum, and count often be seen with Gummy after practice tapping away whilst he struggled with the rifle.

#11 - Blur

A whirl in the air, a thump, and ten minutes later Gummy was apologizing to various marching band members whom he'd smacked trying to toss the rifle.

#12 - Wait

Standing outside the hospital room, biting his lip, and Gummy's heart was beating faster a 2/20 on his drum- waiting for the diagnosis on Kye, to see if that tumor was- _NO, I can't think that. _

#13 - Change

"So many things are going to change," sighed Gummy, and Kye gave him a sidelong look and said, "Yeah, like the amount of time I'm going to spend teaching you rifle, you really suck right now."

#14 - Command

"You have to wear a wig in the show," said the band director, "because if you don't you won't match the rest of the guard," but in a shocking display of boldness, Gummy said, "Good, she deserves to stand out!"

#15 - Hold

Kye mournfully regarded the clump of hair in her hand, and then let go- pieces of her past falling away, and then a callused, tan hand held hers, and she looked up, smiling, into the future.

#16 - Need

"Which one do you like best?" asked Kye, picking up a chestnut bob wig, and then a blond, wavy one, but he gently put them both back on the table and said, "It doesn't matter to me, as long as I can see your face."

#17 - Vision

Maybe in a flash of boredom during band camp, he had stared at her and wondered about possible dates they could have and the like, but ten seconds later, they were back to marching, and he could not think about it anymore.

#18 - Attention

"Band, ten hut!" ordered the drum majors, but Gummy and Kye were so into their conversation that they burst out laughing- and realized that everyone else was staring at them in the deep silence.

#19 - Soul

Whether a soul beats or dances, it is still a soul, and that's what kept them together.

#20 - Picture

"It's supposed to be a circle," mused Gummy, looking at the section leader's drill chart, pointing out mistakes in the actual field to Kye, "So I have no idea what Drake is doing in the middle-" "Gummy, I think he's passed out from the heat-"

#21 - Fool

After Drake yelled at Gummy for skipping drumline sectionals to see him in the hospital and chucking his drumstick (still clutched in his hand) at the poor snare, it took Kye to come in and placate and furious invalid (_like magic_ mused Gummy.)

#22 - Mad

"We're**mad mad mad!**" chanted the guard, dancing around in a circle holding hands, and it was when Kye turned around and kissed him and Gummy _phlumfed _out of bed and smacked his head on the floor, the dream whisked away by hardwood.

#23 - Child

"She (_he_) would always be dancing (_drumming_) with everything in sight," sighed Kye's (_Gummy's_) parents, "And now their into boys (_girls_) we can only imagine these years will only get worse…"

#24 - Now

The stadium shone bright, brass instruments glinting, lines formed to step off, his drum heavy on his chest, nerves jittering, but then he cast a quick glance over to Kye, who was intently gazing at her sabre with a sense of calm, and his blood suddenly relaxed.

#25 - Shadow

It was barely a fuzz, hardly a shadow of what it was, but for five whole minutes Gummy marveled over Kye's newly grown back hair with amazement, much to her chagrin.

#26 - Goodbye

At State, there was a sense of mourning after the last performance- final time together, the final time the music would sound, and the final collective breath at the very end that they _all_ shared.

#27 - Hide

"Look, boys just don't talk about stuff like that," muttered Gummy uncomfortably after Kye told him how all the guard girls/guys had played ten fingers and discovered so much about each other, "And I _really_ don't want to know that much about the drumline!"

#28 - Fortune

Most people hunted for lottery tickets, pots of gold, and diamonds, but all he wanted from Lady Luck were the words, "The cancer's gone."

#29 - Safe  
_  
Sometimes when it got cold out, and the wind froze his bones, Gummy would think about when he and his mother were homeless and living in the shelter, and he would sink back -_ only to be brought back by the steady beat of drums and the flash of a blade in the sky.

#30 - Ghost

He swore, 20 years after she died and he visited their old high school, she was still hanging around the band room… who else would constantly rearrange the chairs in crop circles and play with the rifles in the guard room?

#31 - Book

She thought she had him read from day one, but then she saw him fighting back glassy, bright eyes when he noticed a homeless person on the corner, and decided, you can't judge a book by only the first ten pages.

#32 - Eye

"I've got an eye for these things," confidently said fellow snare John as Gummy denied anything serious going on between him and Kye, but then Cass butted in and said, "You moron, you don't have an eye, they were making out in the locker room!"

#33 - _Never say never_ haunted his mind constantly, but the phrase _never see her again_ constantly beat itself in his mind as he looked back at her gravestone, bitterly walking away.

#34 - Sing

Neither of them could hit a note at all, but it was quite the cute picture- a boy, a girl, a karaoke machine, a song neither of them knew but both heartedly attempted.

#35 - Sudden

"This is kind of surprise, Drake," murmured Gummy, looking down, but then Drake said, "Look, I'm a senior, so I'm recommending you to be drumline captain, got it? Besides, I heard a rumor that the guard captains are already picked, and you're little sabre's one of them, so shut it-" and Gummy effectively did.

#36 - Stop

A fifteen minute rest stop on the way to Regionals; a unisex bathroom; and that's where Scott found them, screaming, "MY GOD! I DID NOT NEED TO SEE THIS AT 5 A.M!"

#37 - Time

At that last second of the performance, when the entire band sounded the last note and the guard proudly lifted their heads and gazed confidently at the crowd, the snare player swore his heart was slamming at the same pace as the guardie five yard lines away.

#38 - Wash

It took many scrubbings to get the show makeup off, but when Kye was finally done, back in her natural, clean smile, Gummy thought that was pretty enough.

#39 - Torn

He fingers his ripped jeans from years ago, musing about what would've happened if he and his mother still wandered the streets, and he had never joined band and never met her-

#40 - History (goes with #41)

-but then she recounts her own story with him, and they realize that, perhaps, if they could sow together their histories, a beautiful new one could be made.

#41 - Power

Harry and David, the drum majors, snickered over how much power they had over the bandies, but when then were suddenly ducking electrical tape rolls and mallets after interrupting a 'talk session' between Gummy and Kye, they were sent fleeing.

#42 - Bother

"Stop… poking… me…." moaned Drake in his sleep, but then Kye whispered, "Unless you want to be in the middle-" and then the drumline leader scrambled out of the bus seat and flung himself next to a very surprised band director, horrific images flashing in his mind.

#43 - God

The low brass of Mountain Valley Band had their deities, and the flutes often chanted before a contest to some unknown persona, and Gummy wondered if that picture of the handsome man in just a swimsuit in the guard room was that same thing (the way that the girls ooohed and eeeeeee!ed over it.)

#44 - Wall

After state, the band tacked up blank poster boards on the wall and wrote down their favorite moment this season, Gummy and Kye just wrote each other's names side by side and drew a little smiley face.

#45 - Naked

"Yes, sometimes the girls change in the guard room, no, I don't look, and no, I will not get you pictures," sighed Chester, and the group of band guys sullenly moved away, but then the redhead added to Gummy, practicing nearby, "but I can say that she talks about you a lot."

#46 - Drive

She was snarky, pretty, loopy, and smart, but he feared for his life when she slammed her foot and the petal and tore out of the band parking lot _("WATCH OUT FOR THAT FRESHMAN!!!_")

#47 - Harm

Multiple bruises littered her arms from her rifle, and it took all of Kye not to burst out laughing when a complete stranger at the mall approached her with advice to go to an abuse counselor, because she knew Gummy would probably be on the receiving end.

#48 - Precious

Heart thrumming in his chest, and as he watched her calmly open the diagnosis envelope (remission?) he had never realized how much he'd shatter if she did.

#49 - Hunger

Normally, he wouldn't trust a piece of food found at the bottom of Kye's guard bag (with the occasional glitter bit on it) but compared with the offering of God-knows-how-old chocolate worms discovered somewhere underneath the bus heater, he'd knew his choice instantly.

#50 - Believe

"It may be back," murmured Kye to her sabre, "but it doesn't have me," and then Gummy came up behind her and closed his arms over her chest and said, "No, I believe _I_ have you."


End file.
